Luanda, the capital of Angola, will play host on Wednesday to a meeting that will include an effort at mediation between the president s of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the neighboring country of Rwanda.
The summit is taking place despite the fact that tensions have been rising between the two nations.
Joao Lourenco, the President of Angola, will meet with Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, the Presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, respectively. Relations between the two countries have been deteriorating for several weeks as a result of the revival of the M23 rebel movement and the intensification of fighting in eastern DRC.
Kigali is accused of assisting the rebels by Kinshasa, which is an accusation that is refuted by the government in Rwanda.
After suffering a crushing defeat in 2013, the Tutsi-dominated organization known as M23 took up weapons once again at the end of the following year. They claimed that the Congolese government had violated an agreement about the demobilization and reintegration of its members.
Attacks carried out by M23 in May and June resulted in the deaths of many dozens of people.
Over 170,000 people were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in the neighboring country of Uganda.
A regional force to attempt to put an end to the violence was agreed upon by the presidents of East African nations a month ago.
